All free schools will be forced to present evolution as a comprehensive and central tenet of scientific theory, ministers have announced, following lobbying by senior scientists concerned that Christian-run institutions could exploit loopholes in the rules to present creationism as a credible theory.

The significance here is clear – for all the free schools founded by the more extreme sectors of evangelical christianity (and, I guess, schools run with any other religious ethos) evolution must be taught as part of the science curriculum. The worry had been that such Free schools such as the Grindon Hall Christian School (see The Grindon Hall Creation Policy document) would teach their (ir)relevant creation myths under the guise of Religious Studies, and then just omit evolutionary biology from their science classes.

Still, worries must arise around just how these religiously motivated Free schools will be inspected – both in terms of how effective this can be and who actually does the inspection.

Wouldn’t it just be easier not to allow these kinds of people to run schools in the first place?